Grain-door opener and process of opening it.



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`A. WALLACE. GRAIN DOOR OPENER AND PROCESS 0F OPENING IT.

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. WALLACE.

GRAIN DOOR OPENER AND PROCESS 0F OPENING IT.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 7. 191e.

1,201,006. Pand o@t.10,1916.

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A. WALLACE.

' GRAIN DOOR OPENER AND PROCESS 0F OPENING IT.

APPLICATION FILED fm1. 1916.

1 ,201 ,006 Patented Oct. 10, 1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

ANDREW WALLACE, OF SOUTH CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

GRAIN-DOOR OPENER AND PROCESS F OPENING IT.

Speccation of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 10, 1916.

Application filed February 7, 1916. Serial N o. 76,851.

To @ZZ 11i/wm it may concern Be it known that I, ANDREW WALLACE, a citizen of the United States, residing at South Chicago, in the county of Oook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Grain-Door Openers and Processes of Opening Them, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in grain door openers, and has for one object to provide means for quickly and easily opening the grain doors of freight cars and the like.

Another object is to provide means for opening such doors without destroying them.

Other objects of my invention will appear in the specification.

The invention is illustrated more or less diagrammatically in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 shows a cross section through a freight car showing my device in elevation.

Fig. 2 is a section along theline 2 2 of Fig.

l; Fig. 3 is a detail on an enlarged scale, showing my devicein elevation of a grain door in section with the parts viewed a short interval later in operation than in Fig. l; Fig. t is a section along the line 4 4 of Fig. l; Fig. 5 is a front eleva-tion of the door contacting portion; Fig. 6 is a section along the line 6 6 of Fig. 5.

Like parts a're indicated by similar letters throughout all the parts.

A is the floor, and A1 the wall of the grain handling house, into which the freight car A2 comes riding along the track A3. The freight car whichv contains grain or other such material, as indicated at A1, has its door closed by a so-called grain door A5, made up of a series of planks horizontally disposed on edge, extending across the door and nailed or otherwise suitably attached to the inside wall of the car on either side of the door. These planks are normally put in place and nailed or locked in position before the car is filled, and they making a close snug contact with the wall of the car, prevent discharge of material from the car. However, when the car is to be unloaded, the pressure of the material on these boards prevents their being withdrawn, because they must be forced back into the car to release the nailsv which hold them. The ordinary practice is to cut or chop or break out the bottom two or three boards, thus destroying them. The material then truns out beneath the boards until it sinks low enough so that the operator can climb in over, draw out the nails and remove the other boards one at a time. This is manifestly an exceedingly expensive process, because these doors cost in the neighborhood of ifty cents to one dollar a piece, and about one third of each door is normally destroyed in unloading. In my arrangement I provide means for forcing the doors into the car against the weight of materiah'thus drawing out the nails. The door is then drawn up on the inside of the car, so as to permit the material to How out beneath. drawal of the door takes place almost instantaneously, and no breakage takes place.

`B B are pillow blocks on the floor of the house. They carry rotatably mounted therein a shaft B1. On this shaft adjacent either end and adjacent the two end pillow blocks B, are sleeves B2 having flat supporting surfaces B3 upon which are bolted the two T rails BL1 B4. These'two T rails are arranged side by side, one arranged at each end of the shaft. These rails are bent, as indicated at B5, at a point slightly above their pivot point, and then extend up to rest against the stop rail B6, when in the inoperative position.

B7 B7 are two A-shaped brackets projecting outwardly from the wall A1. They support at their outer end a cross bar BS upon which are mounted two sheaves B9 B9, in front of respectively, the two T rail beam groups Bl1 B4.

B10 is a reinforcing channel riveted to the bases of the four T rails to hold the two beams in fixed position with respect one to another.

O is a motor mounted on a bracket O1, on the channel B10. This motor has a pinion O2 driving a gear O3 on the shaft O1. This The forcing end process and withshaft is mounted in bearings O5 on theV bracket O1 and channel B10, and carries a pinion C in mesh with the gear O7, which gear in turn is carried by a 'shaft O8 in bearings O9 supported on the channel B10. This shaft is always in operation being driven by the motor and serves as a counter shaft from which the drive is taken.

D is a miter pinion rigidly connected to a female member D1 in opposition to a maler clutch member D2, splinedon the shaft.

D3 is a clutch control rod to throw this clutch into and out of operation to rotate or release the miter gear in response to the rota- .shaft D8.

tion of the shaft. This miter pinion D is in mesh with a miter gear D4 on the worm shaft D5. The worm D(s on the shaft is in mesh with the worm wheelV D7 on the drum 'Ihe drum shaft I)8 is supported on the rail beams, and carries at either end drums D9. A cable D10 is anchored at one end on the drum D", at the other end on a pin D11 between the rails, the bight passing around the sheave B9, so that a rotation of the drum winds up the cables and draws the upper ends of the beams out, rotating them about their pivotal point.

VEis a miter pinion floating on the shaft Chaving a female clutch member E1 in opposition to a male clutch member E2 splined on the shaft, and controlled by a clutch lever E3. VThis pinion is in mesh with the gear E4, which drives a worm shaft E5, and by means of a worm EG drives a worm wheel E7. This worm wheel is mounted on the hoisting shaft ES. It carries at either end the drums E9 around which are wound the hoisting cables E10.

F E are vertically disposed rails tied together by the crossbars F1 `to form a door opening plunger. Thelinks F2 F2 are slidably mounted at one end between the rails B? and rest against the stops E at their other ends. Theyare pivoted between the rails E so as to support the upper end of therdoor opening plunger pivotally from the main rail beams.

F3 are racks pivoted on the lower ends of the rails F, and in engagement with the `gears F4 in yokes F5 mounted on the rails B4. Dogs FG lock the gears against rotation, but may be withdrawn when necessary, to permit rotation-of the gears by the hand of the operator to move the rack longitudinally. These dogs engage, of course, one of cach of a pair of ratchet wheels F7 F7 to lock the gear against movement in either direction. The rails 'are cut away as indicated at FS to permit movement of the rack both longitudinally and rotative. Y

G Gr are pivotally mounted guide shoes mounted on the lower ends of the rails F, having curved car floor contacting surfaces G1. They are pivotal at points slightly above the ends of the rail, and counterbalanced by means of weights G2, so that they normally hang in the position shown in Fig. l projecting forwardly in front of the plunger, but when pressure is brought to Vbear upon the plunger, they assume the position shown in Fig. 3 contacting the door at the pointGS. The position of the parts is such that the operator by feeding forward the rack until the shoe rests upon the vcar iioor andits point just contacts the door, will know the parts are in the proper position, and will then lock them in such position.

H H are lifting hooks mounted on carriages H1, which slide between the rails F, Ithe hooks projecting forwardly in front of the rails a distance such that when the parts are in the position shown in Fig. 1, the hook will be just free to fall without contacting the door surface. This hook is adapted to be lifted and controlled by the cables El", which pass over sheaves H2 on the rails E, so that a rotation of the drum E will raise or lower the lifting hook as the case ma be.

It will be observed that the point o application of thepressure between the rails B4 and the rack is above the pivotal point of the rack on the door opening plunger, so that any pressure upon this plunger caused by the forward movement ofthe upper end of the rail will not tend to lift the plunger, but will force it firmly against and under the door. ward component is partially balanced by the fact that the upper link is inclined in the opposite direction, but at the upper end the pressures are much lower, so that there is still a component left tending to hold the plunger down and prevent its upward withdrawal or forcing by the pressure which forces it in to open the door.

H3 is a hook on the end of the hand line H4 passing over a pulley H5 from the shaft ES, which may be used to hold the door in position in cooperation with a cleat H6 after the mechanism previously described has opened and raised the door.

H7 is a stop for the plunger, whose function is to limit the upper movement of the plunger and hook, lso that the door opening plunger may be raised into the inoperative position shown in dotted lines before the car is brought in.

I have shown one mechanism for carrying out my door opening process. If we could conceive of a single man strong enough to force the material back into the car by pressing on the door and strong enough to then open the door while raising This pressure or downiii it against the friction of the material, we

would have a man or a machine able to carry out my process, and any machine which is so constituted as to be able to press the door back against the material in the car far enough to disengage the door holding mechanism and then raise the door a few inches to permit the material to flow out below it, will carry out my process, and I want it to be understood that the particular mechanism shown is merely the first preferred form for carrying out this process, but that any suitable mechanism might be used.

It will be evident that, while I have shown in my drawings an operative device, still many changes might be made in size, shape, and arrangement of parts, without departing from the spirit of my invention.

are as follows: The freight car which isto be unloaded is now on the track in the position shown. The cars vary somewhat in width,

' somewhat in height, and somewhat in width of sill. The sliding door is moved back, eX- posing the grain door which is usually made up of three or four boards fastened together, and nailed to the inside of the door jamb. Hy apparatus is meanwhile in the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3 with the heavy rails resting on the support at the top. The operator manipulates the clutch to unwind the cable and lower the door opening foot or plate into the position shown in Fig. 1. The operator by hand moves the rack in or out as the case may be to bring the curved pivoted shoe to rest upon the door sill with the point touching the door. He then further releases the cable, permitting the door raising hook to drop down so that it also rests on the sill; lVith the rack locked in position the operator then manipulates the other clutch to tilt the opening heavy levers forward from above. This brings the door opening shoe into engagement with the pivoted foot in the position shown in Fig. 8. The further movement brings the whole shoe against the door, and a still further movement presses the door in against the material behind it, thus drawing the nails all out evenly and freely without breaking the door or the nail. As soon as the door has been pushed in so that the nails are all clear a position is held, but no further movement takes place. rI`he pressure on the door at thisl time without further movement is no greater than it was before, because the material will have been displaced and will assume a. position of rest. The other clutch is then operated to wind up the housing drum, the hooks which eX- tend beneath the door engaging it and sliding it up along the rails forming the door opening shoe. This movement will be continued until the door has been raised a few inches, possibly a foot above the bottom of the car. The grain or material then rushes out. The hook on the cable shown in Fig. 1 will be positioned as shown. As the grain runs out, the hook will ride down on the top of the grain until it passes through the door from below. It can then be fastened to the door or brought up and fastened about the cable, and the door held in position without the use of the rigid ponderous door opening machinery. The whole operation takes but a short time. The door is being forced in almost as soon as the power is applied to my device, thus operating with a minimum of labor and without damaging the car doors in any way. The adjustment by means of the gear and ratchet of the position of the bottom of the door pressing frame results in making the effective length of the link connecting the frame with the lever at the bottom a variable while the length of the link at the top of the frame is a constant. Then the frame is lifted up into the inoperative position, it swings about the pivot of the lower link on the lever. Thepivot point of the upper link is free to slide and it slides to compensate as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 3, but the pivotal point when in operative position is always below the pivotal point on the frame so that there is never a tendency to throw the pivot point on the lever up instead of down.

I claim:

1. The process of opening grain, doors in railroad cars and the like, which consists in forcing the door bodily inward against the mass of material behind ituntil it is completely free from the car body, then holding it against the pressure of material and raising it bodily upward within the car.

2. The process of opening grain doors in railroad cars and the like, which consists in forcing the door bodily inward against the mass of material behind it until it is completely free from the car body, then holding it against the pressure of material and raising it bodily upward within the car, then releasing the pressure and holding the door in the raised position until the materia-l has run out from beneath the door.

3. The process of opening grain doors which consists first in forcing the door as a unit inwardly against the pressure of material behind it then raising the door bodily along the line at right angles to the line of its first movement and holding it in position while the material in the car runs out beneath the door. f p

In testimony whereof, I aiiiX my signature in the presence of two witnesses this 3rd day of February, 1916.

ANDREW WALLACE.

Witnesses:

ESTHER VAN FRANK, CHRISTINA DnANs.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

' Washington, D. Q. 

